EART-Earth Sciences

Exploration of cinema's role in defining societal awareness of Earth sciences (underlying concepts and factual basis) for disaster and adventure movies and in more subtle presentations. Topics include evolution of life, surface environment and the planet's deep interior, natural hazards, global warming, and meteorite impacts. (Formerly course 80D, Earth Sciences and the Cinema.)

Learn scientific concepts required to be an informed environmentalist. Topics include urban smog; water resources and pollution; waste treatment; acid rain; global climate change; fossil fuel, nuclear, and renewable energy; overpopulation; and how an individual can minimize his or her environmental impact.

Over the past 4.5 billion years, planet Earth has evolved in exciting ways. Environments, climates, and life forms have come and gone in fascinating combinations. Course examines changing physical, biological, and climatological conditions through geologic time, beginning with the evolution of the Earth through changes leading to the current state of the planet, and considers prospects for Earth's future.

Physics applied to geological problems, including basic mechanics, stress and strain, heat transport, and fluid flow. Discussion-2 hours.

Explores the shallow subsurface environment, including groundwater systems, buried faults, sedimentary basins and other environmentally significant features using the tools of geophysics. Data acquisition and interpretation focus on understanding processes and defining problems.

Introduction to field and laboratory techniques in geophysics and their application to geologic and environmental problems. Includes introduction to seismic reflection and refraction, gravity, magnetic, and electrical resistivity methods. Laboratory-6 hours.

How the fossil magnetism of rocks is used to decipher Earth's history: applications to tectonics, geochronology, stratigraphy, structural geology, geomagnetism, and archeology. Includes an overnight field trip to collect samples for a class research project.

A hands-on research project in the Paleomagnetic Laboratory. Students collectively drill oriented cores in the field (one–two days), prepare and measure the samples, and analyze and interpret the data. Each student writes an individual final report based on the class results.

Reconstruction of the chemistry, biology, circulation, and temperature of the ocean and of climate systems throughout geologic time. Emphasis on interpretation of the marine sedimentary record and geochemical cycling. Discussion-1 hour. Will be offered in the 2006–07 academic year.

Introduction to the fundamental concepts and methods of modern marine stratigraphy. Topics covered include lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, chemostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, seismic stratigraphy, cyclestratigraphy, graphic correlation, and spectral analysis. Practical application of techniques is explored within the context of Cenozoic paleoceanography. One Saturday field exercise. Will be offered in the 2001-02 academic year.

Introduction to the physics and chemistry of bonding in minerals and silicate melts. Relationship of mineral and melt structures to physical properties. Application of modern analytical techniques to studying the structures, chemistry, and physical properties of Earth materials.

Covers field methods used in water resources management and groundwater contamination studies, including well pumping tests, unsaturated zone monitoring, and ground-water sampling techniques.

The formation of asteroids, comets, moons, planets, and the samples that derive from them, with a focus on meteorites, astronomical discoveries, spacecraft mission results, and modeling. Students cannot receive credit for this course and course 267.

Introduction to reflection seismology, presenting an overview of data acquisition, processing, and interpretation; common depth point method; velocity determinations; filtering; migration; display. Applications to seismic stratigraphy and structure of the crust and of continental margins. Laboratory: 3 hours.

Introduction to quantitative earthquake and global Earth structure seismology. Topics include basic elasticity, wave characteristics, seismic ray theory, wave reflection, surface waves, normal modes, seismic instrumentation, application of seismic waves to reveal Earth structure and resulting models, representation of earthquake sources such as explosions and faulting, earthquake rupture scaling, modern methods of modeling seismic recordings to study source complexity, and an introduction to seismotectonics. Laboratory-3 hours. Students cannot receive credit for this course and course 270.

Three weeks of summer field study in geologically complex regions in the White-Inyo Mountains of eastern California. Activities include geologic field mapping on topographic and photographic base maps, stratigraphy, petrology, and structure analysis. A fee is required for participation. Contact sponsoring agency for details. Prerequisite(s): satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements; courses 109/L, 110A/L, and 110B/M. Enrollment is restricted to Earth sciences majors. Concurrent enrollment in course 188B is required. Interview only via application filed with department.

Introduction to basic principles of geographic information systems (GIS). Visualization of earthscapes with applications to problem-solving in the Earth sciences. Laboratory exercises in loading, manipulation, and interpretation of data sets. Field investigations of phenomena visualized in laboratory, including geological description, interpretation, and written report preparation. Lecture and laboratory portions of course occur during spring quarter. Field investigations and report-writing occur in the summer following spring quarter. A fee is required for participation. Contact sponsoring agency for details. Prerequisite(s): satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements; courses 109/L, 110A/L, and 110B/M. Enrollment is restricted to Earth sciences majors. Concurrent enrollment in course 188A is required. Interview only via application filed with department.

Seminar concerning a major scientific debate in the earth sciences and designed to integrate the undergraduate major. Topics vary quarterly and require synthesis of geological, geophysical, and geochemical information mostly drawn from the current research literature.

Training for undergraduates in practical teaching skills. Focus on preparation, assessment, and feedback. Classroom techniques, organizational and time management strategies, practice teaching sessions. Students cannot receive credit for this course and course 203. Future participation in 196B is encouraged. Course may not be counted toward upper-division major requirements.

Lecture and- seminar-style class intended to welcome new graduate students to the department and to introduce students to the research and interests of departmental faculty and researchers. Includes exercises to develop skills in reading scientific abstracts and papers and in writing abstracts and proposals. Two weekend field trips.

Origin and distribution of the elements in the earth and meteorites; bulk and isotopic composition and differentiation of terrestrial planets, core, mantle, and crust; Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf-U isotopic tracers. Course designed for graduate students, but available to qualified earth sciences majors per instructor permission.

Overview of current understanding of star and planet formation and evolution. Examines our solar system in the context of the galactic planetary census. Provides a uniform introduction to astronomy and Earth science planetary students.

Systematic study of the major igneous rock suites, combining petrography, experimental petrology, major and trace elements, volatiles, and isotopic characteristics. Laboratory: three hours. Course designed for graduate students but available to qualified earth sciences majors. Course 130 is recommended as preparation.

Rigorous presentation of major subsets of geomorphology: I. Mechanics of sediment transport. Physics of sediment transport in both air and water. II. Mechanics of hillslope processes. III. Glaciology and glacial geology. Topics vary from year to year between these three. Will be offered in the 2005–06 academic year.

Alternates between lectures, seminars, discussions, and field trips to dune fields, beaches, and other coastal, marine, and fluvial environments. Class time focuses on selected processes and structures in sedimentology; field trips emphasize observational techniques.

Introduces students to the biology, paleontology, and biostratigraphy of marine microfossils. Included are planktonic and benthic foraminifera, calcareous nannoplankton, diatoms, radiolaria and ostracodes. Focus is on microscope identification of Cenozoic microfossils in a weekly laboratory.

Introduces photogrammetry 's basic principles of imaging systems and digital-image processing for both terrestrial and planetary data, leading to the application of photogrammetry techniques to a final project of the student's choosing.

Addresses methods of paleoclimate modeling on global and regional scales, from both surface and atmospheric perspectives. Applications of models to current significant paleoclimate problems will be examined. Includes both lecture and seminar formats.

Study of the evolution and diversification of life on this planet; and factors affecting habitability of other bodies in this solar system and elsewhere.

Field class in comparative planetology. Three- to four -day field trip plus planning and debriefing sessions.

The formation of asteroids, comets, moons, planets, and the samples that derive from them, with a focus of meteorites, astronomical discoveries, spacecraft mission results, and modeling. Students cannot receive credit for this course and course 167.

Explores concepts and methods of correlating marine sedimentary sequences. Emphasis on the integration of techniques and development of the Cenozoic stratigraphic record. One 2-hour laboratory each week. Upper-division students who have completed course 120 may enroll in this course.

Using a multidisciplinary approach, examines physical geology, paleoenvironment, human biology, linguistics, and culture history of Americas at end of last Ice Age. Particular emphasis on reconstructing timing, routes, and context of first peopling of the American continents. Taught in conjunction with Anthropology 276D. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.)

Special topics in wave propagation in heterogeneous, three-dimensional media, applications for determination of Earth's structure, kinematics and dynamics of the seismic source, near field phenomena, engineering applications, current problems.

Special topics of interest in current research by the seismology group. Discussion of new developments in earthquake mechanics, wave propagation, tectonics, earthquake prediction.

Rigorous statistical treatment of geophysical data involving: Bayesian inference; stochastic processes and fields; information theory; non-linear and non-assumptive error analysis; cluster analysis; regional variables; correlograms and kriging. Develops the theoretical framework of linear geostatistics and geophysical inverse theory. Designed for graduate students but available to qualified Earth sciences majors.

A graduate discussion course considering geochemical, biological, and ecological aspects of contaminants and ecosystems. The interdisciplinary nature of the this subject is emphasized through critical readings and discussion. Each student explores a topic in detail by preparing a written review and leading a class discussion.

Selected topics in Earth surface processes and Quaternary history are treated in detail. Emphasis is placed on recent advances, both in theory and in field and dating techniques. Course designed for graduate students but available to qualified Earth sciences majors. Will be offered in the 2005-06 academic year.